Proposal Writing Guides

Writing an Essay (English) (Arabic)

External Resources

"Grantseeker's Guide to the Internet" is an online article which provides assistance and information on seeking grants via the web.
BIG Online is North America's most comprehensive source of fundraising information, opportunities, and resources for non-profit organizations. The website includes a funding database, writing resources, client support, and grant development services.
Dissertation Proposal Workshop by the Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley. This site comprises a collection of tips, samples, and links.
Dissertation-Statistics.com offers practical tips for picking a dissertation research topic and writing a dissertation proposal. Topics include hypothesis development, sample size and research design choice, and statistical tools for data gathering and analysis.
Foundation Center provides a short course on proposal writing, geared particularly towards non-profit organizations seeking funding from private donors.
Funders for Lesbian and Gay Issues is an organization that is comprised of individual donors and grantmakers from private, public, family, corporate and community foundations.
Gettysburg College, Department of Anthropology discusses the major sections of a research proposal. Directed to researchers in the field of anthropology, but useful for researchers in the social sciences and humanities more broadly. Sections discussed include: title, research objectives, background, literature review, methodology, personal rationale, and citations.
Here is a research proposal template for anthropology that guides you in each section.
Grant Spy is a site that does the legwork for grant-seekers across the nation in non-profits, government agencies, schools, etc. The site also includes information on California state grants.
USAID has a site called "Grants Web" which offers resources on government funding, general research funding, and private funding.
Learner’s Associate guide provided by Dr. Levine of Michigan State University has writing tips and actual writing proposal examples to guide graduate students in writing a funding proposal.
Minnesota Council on Foundations: "Writing a Successful Grant Proposal" is a useful article on grant-writing.
National Science Foundation’s division of undergraduate education, this comprehensive and detailed guide to grant writing includes program information, prewriting strategies, grant writing guidelines, evaluation criteria, and advice on what to do once a proposal is or isn’t accepted.
Oxford University Special Paper: Research Methods in Middle Eastern Studies. This paper, written by Dr. Maya Shuayb, Director of the Center for Lebanese Studies at Oxford University, provides useful resources for understanding the principles of research design. Paper aims to assist researchers in defining a research question, selecting appropriate methods for researching the question, analyzing qualitative data, and addressing ethical issues in social science research. Offers useful scholarly literature key topics related to research design and development.
Purdue University by Computer Scientists for PhD students, you will find sections on terms and phrases to avoid, separating cause-effect relationships from simple statistical correlations and drawing only warranted conclusions.
Research and Sponsored Projects, University of Michigan; intended for those with little or no experience writing grant proposals for sponsored activities, this guide breaks down the parts of writing a proposal and provides insight on each section of a proposal.
Scholarly Arguments: Strategies for Writing Persuasive Proposals in the Humanities by Christina Gillis is a publication of UC Berkeley's Townsend Center for the Humanities;
Science Supercourse, Library of Alexandria offers the Research Methods Library of Alexandria. This is one of the largest and comprehensive collections of research methods.
The Council on Foundations has an excellent website with links to grant-writing information and resources.
The European Foundation Center seeks to facilitate access to online funding information. This site may be helpful for those interested in research in Europe.
The Ford Foundation offers a database of grants and foundations which is searchable by keyword and year.
The Foundation Center "Common Grant Applications" is a time saver as many grant makers have adopted a single format for their applicants.
The Foundation Center "Prospect Worksheet" will help you record possible funding sources and match them with your own research interests.
The Foundation Center Proposal Writing Short Course
The Foundation Center provides a searchable database of funding sources.
The Graduate Division, University of California Berkeley tips on proposal writing from Berkeley faculties that have served on review committees for the university and extramural awards.
The WAC Clearinghouse, in this chapter addresses the technical skills of finding and recording information, developing original ideas and the skills of understanding them and making informed judgments. On page 18, it includes information on formalizing your topic through a review of the literature and proposal.
The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research offers an overview of the grant-making process for those written for funders of anthropological research. It lists general points for writing a proposal, how to address questions in a proposal, and additional items such as the abstract, budget and title.
Trinity Western University; in this excerpt, Dr. Wong focuses on proposal writing rather than the development of research ideas. He explains the purpose of a literature review and the common mistakes students make when using them. He also offers a guide for the Method section.
University of California Berkeley; focuses on research proposals that include conducting fieldwork. Provides insights on framing, designing and conducting a researchable project by using examples from the author’s own experiences examining social movements, household dynamics and gender issues.
The University of Edinburgh provides a guide on writing a proposal to students who are asked to submit a research proposal as part of their application for admissions to a research degree. This guide looks at the content, writing style, and the process of identifying funding sources.
The University of Michigan Division of Research Development and Administration (DRDA) site offers proposal writing assistance specifically for the arts and humanities.
The University of Michigan DRDA also offers a general grant-writing guide, "The Proposal Writer's Guide" by Don Thackrey.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill offers a guide to assist graduate students of all academic disciplines (sciences, social sciences, humanities, and the arts) in writing and revising grant proposals for research funding. It provides general tips, how to organize your proposal, and how to search for potential grants and funding agencies.
University of Southern California Libraries provides step-by-step guidance on how to develop and organize research projects in the social sciences. Specifically provides guidance in writing the key components of research proposals. Additional topics addressed include choosing a topic, developing a research design capable of addressing the research question, and writing up findings for publication.
University of Sydney, Learning Center provides a guide on how to clarify the thesis topic, and assists with formulating research questions, aims, and objectives. It offers thesis proposal models for the social sciences, and science and engineering. It also gives an overview of the general expectations of a thesis at an Honors, Master’s and PhD level.
University of Texas, Austin, Intellectual Entrepreneurship offers a list of sample dissertation proposals in humanities, social sciences, and engineering and natural sciences fields. Proposals organized by field, title, area or methodology, and department.

To add to our list contact sjoseph@ucdavis.edu